We are a curious group of Kindergartners who are looping to first grade with Mrs. Randi Timmons and Mrs. T and our new teacher, Mrs. Cathy Daniels. While Mrs. Timmons is on maternity leave, we welcome Mrs. Ruark! The best thing about school is that we put our curiosity to good use as we explore reading, writing, math, science and our world with our teachers serving as our guides. How exciting!

Friday, 28 September 2007

Students have begun to bring home a "book in a bag" each night. In each bag is a book that the student has taken out of his individual book bin to bring home. For students who are not yet reading conventionally, they choose a good story book from their book bin. Each child is expected to "read" the book by looking at the pictures. When the child brings home the book, an adult should read the book to the child first and then let the child "read" by retelling each page. As your child gets better and better at this you will notice that he uses much of the same language that you use as you read the story. If you use a deep voice for the big bad bear, he will begin to use a deep voice for the bear. Before long your child will sound like he is reading the story even though he doesn't really know how to read the words.

At school the children hear the same good story books over and over. We call these good story books, "Star Books." The children practice reading these books to themselves and to partners during Independent Reading every day. Later they make props and practice retelling these books using the props. In the pictures below you can see students practicing one of the class favorite books, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, with stick puppets of the troll and each of the three billy goats.

Make sure to take out that "book in the bag" every single night. That is the way that children learn to read!

Friday, 14 September 2007

What about that egghead? HumptyDumpty has been walking that wall all week! Ask your child about the day that we actually had a real egg up on a wall and watched it fall. We figured out why the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty back together again!

Humpty has introduced our little ones to some new words this week. We have found these sight words in our rhyme: a, the, had, on (notice the green tape over those words on the chart below). Maybe your child can find some of the words at home this week. We have also learned to say the first sound we hear in words? What’s the first sound you hear in the word Humpty? Answer: /h/ When a letter has slashes before and after, it means that it’s the sound that “h” makes. Ask your child to tell you the first sound s/he hears in these words:Dumpty Answer:/d/wall /w/fall /f/king /k/We are also still working with words that rhyme – words that sound the same at the end. Ask your child to make a nonsense rhyming word with his own name such as Maria Baria, Caleb Naleb, Madison Radison and with all the names in your family. We have had fun all week making rhyming names. For a copy of the rhyme to read with your child, go to http://www.kinderfriends.com/humptydumpty.doc. It has been an egg-specially great week!

Monday, 10 September 2007

Every person has a favorite book! Mrs. Conte's favorite is Goodnight Moon because it's the one that she reads to little Charlie every night before he goes to bed. In a great green room, tucked away in bed, the little bunny says, "Goodnight room, goodnight moon." Then to all the familiar things in the softly lit room - to the picture of the three little bears sitting in chairs, to the clocks and his socks, to the mittens and the kittens, to everything one by one - he says goodnight. What a perfect lulling book for the end of the day! Good night, little Charlie...

Mrs. Timmons' favorite book is Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You Hear?Like Mrs. Conte, she also has a little one at home and little Kallyn loves this special Bill Martin, Jr. book that is illustrated by Eric Carle. It's the perfect book to follow the beloved Brown, Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by the same author and illustrator.This book appeals to Kallyn's sense of hearing as it moves through simple rhymes and colorful illustrations...

Mrs. T has a favorite book too. She loves The Three Billy Goats Gruff which is one of our "Star" books. When her daughter Courtney was in kindergarten, it was her favorite book. Courtney loved changing her voice to be the big, gruff billy goat and then to change her voice again to be the wee, little billy goat. She would dissolve into laughter every time! Of course, Mrs. T's little one isn't so little any more! Courtney is a Senior at FSU majoring in... Early Childhood Education! She wants to be a teacher! Mrs. T hopes that all of her kindergartners will love this book as much as Courtney did. She hopes the children will ask their parents to read it over and over and over and over...

We were just wondering what your child's favorite book is... Leave us a comment and let us know his/her favorite!

Friday, 7 September 2007

This week we learned the nursery rhyme and motions to Hickory Dickory Dock! What fun!Make sure to ask your child to say the rhyme and to do the motions! Then ask that the rhyme be recited in a little squeaky mouse voice!

We are still working on words that rhyme. This week one of the Literacy Centers that children could choose was to put pictures under words that rhyme with "hill" (as in jack and Jill) or words that rhyme with "clock" (as in the Hickory Dickory clock). Ask your child if the following words rhyme with hill or clock: dock, Jill, rock, shock, pill, knock, jock. Can your child think of other words that rhyme with hill or clock? To download a copy of the rhyme for your child to "read" go to http://www.kinderfriends.com/hickorydickory.doc.

Next week is that all-time favorite, "HumptyDumpty." He just cracks me up!

Wednesday, 5 September 2007

We are just about ready for our parent and grandparent volunteers to join us in the classroom as TIMMONTE VOLUNTEERS!

In the mean time, Mrs. Conte has had some special family members come and visit our classroom. Her brother, John, was visiting from Mississippi, and spent Tuesday morning volunteering with us! He put labels on our math portfolios, got our homework assignment ready and separated some books.

Mrs. Conte's baby, Charlie, came by today for a special visit. He came just in time for read aloud, so we all got to meet him. He even gave us a smile! Boy, he sure loves kids!We can't wait until our parents and grandparents can come and volunteer. Maybe they will even get their picture taken and get to be on our blog!